East India Club

I have a letter to that effect. Unfortunately I cannot, obviously, show it to you, here is the text:

Dear Samuel,

Thank you for your work experience application.

However, I must regret to inform you that you are not eligible for a work experience placement through the Access to Medicine Project at the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine. This is because our work experience scheme is only available to people studying at state schools.

We apologise for any inconvenience or disappointment this may have caused you and wish you luck in finding an alternative placement. Please find enclosed a leaflet, which you may find useful in thinking about alternative placement opportunities.

Yours sincerely,

Sue Tuttlebury
Monitoring and Liaison Support Officer

I am not ashamed to say that I participated on such schemes (the LSE Student Schadowing Scheme, for state school students). This was part of their 'Widening Participation' programme which aims to encourage appropriate students to apply to study at the School.

Presumbly the KCL Access to Medicine scheme was also part of 'Widening Participation'? I think it is generally accepted that State School students have far fewer resources and therefore most schools are unable to give them the best advice on applying to universitites, work placements and so on. Which is why this came in to effect?

One thing I was against was the School adopting a secret quota system which allocated 40 places a year to so-called disadvantaged studenst who attended state schools. I have already expressed by abhorrance for the quota system on another discussion forum.

I am tempted to agree with Nonny mouse here Xanthe. To be frank, the labour governmetn is makign the universities go out of their way to take as many "underprivileged" people as possible. But in doing so they forget that the "priveleged" people that they do not take are often much more capable at doing the course. I think its unfair in some respects on those going to Private schools.
What has been outrageous is how now the government plan to put "problem students" into Eton. FOR FREE. I mean that is just ludicrous. I think there should not be such boundaries between the state and private sector in this context. Those in state schools who are clever can get in without any extra help, and those that cant, well then they arent that clever. (that is my opinion anyway)

Thank you for the support, Splinter, and I agree with the gist of your post; however, I would not generalise so broadly in saying that private school students are "often" more capable. I would say that the entrance examinations to some private schools are VERY competitive, often requiring GCSE level knowledge and understanding at the age of 13, and that this ensures that all the students at the school are of a high academic standard. I do not think, however, that such exams should be taken into account at university entrance, since the high level of ability should be obvious from high GCSE and AS grades.

I didnt say that the private school students are often more capable. What i meant is, as you say, the entrance examinations try to ensure that the private schools have a very high standard of pupils, hence why they get good grades, and it is not to such a degree due to the teaching, and what I was trying to say is that the allowances being made for people not getting the grades due to their background should perhaps be narrowed a little.

out of every post on this thread, i agree with this one whole-heartedly. students should be judged on their AS levels and GCSE's, BUT i would add that the school's level of teaching and past success should also be taken into account as well as the grades. for example a good friend of mine now at the sixth form of my independent school, performed reasonably well at GCSE for my schools standards but for his previous comprehensive school his GCSE grades were so high that there hadnt been a pupil with better grades for 6 years!!!

So he got good GCSE grades, regardless of the quality of the teaching at the school he was at. Surely that indicates that the quality of the school should not be taken into account. The higher average grades at the school he is now at can be attributed to the higher academic standard of the pupils there, since they have had to pass an entrance exam, rather than the higher quality of the teaching.

I am tempted to agree with Nonny mouse here Xanthe. To be frank, the labour governmetn is makign the universities go out of their way to take as many "underprivileged" people as possible. But in doing so they forget that the "priveleged" people that they do not take are often much more capable at doing the course. I think its unfair in some respects on those going to Private schools.
What has been outrageous is how now the government plan to put "problem students" into Eton. FOR FREE. I mean that is just ludicrous. I think there should not be such boundaries between the state and private sector in this context. Those in state schools who are clever can get in without any extra help, and those that cant, well then they arent that clever. (that is my opinion anyway)

while I had to work hard to pass my exams they had to pay the bills to pass theirs.